Can you use Blogger for your firm’s law blog?

Walking down the marble floored hallway past beautiful artwork into a conference room in a prestigious San Francisco law firm, the firm’s marketing director said the managing partner was inclined to use Blogger, Google’s free blog service, for the firm’s blogs. I had been invited down to advise on the use of blogs.

Told her I was pretty shocked as the last picture I passed had to cost more than the firm would spend in the next 4 years by using a professional service for the firm’s blogs. And by saving a few bucks the firm was putting the reputation they work to uphold at risk.

Why not Blogger? One big reason is this story relayed by business blogging expert, Denise Wakeman, when advising her client not to use Blogger.

…I noticed at the top it had a spot for ‘next blog’. Being completely new to this I clicked, saw someone selling handbags, then the next, and THEN on about the 5th I saw full frontal pictures of some guy from Spain or wherever!!!!  Not something I’d want my customers (kids) seeing, so when I was done with my sales schpeil, I related this to the store owner, so he could at least be aware of a potential hornet’s nest.  He appreciated the heads-up.

Denise’s customer is not alone. I’ve reached soft porn blogs from the next blog link on some of Womble Carlyle’s Blogs. Just reached this foreign language Satan – Gothic Blog from their South Carolina Appellate Blog. Wonder if in-house counsel and execs of Womble Carlyle clients have done the same?

Being in a blog network comprised of mostly personal amateur blogs is not the only reason Blogger is not a good fit for law firms. Here’s a few other reasons:

• Lacks categories and subcategories for archiving of content and ease of navigation by readers.
• Archiving on Blogger is by month and day. No one cares less what you blogged on a particular day. Readers want to know what you blogged by topic. Look at CNN, The New York Times, Yahoo, and ESPN. Their content is indexed by topic. Why waste all that good content you’ve published by burying it in archives organized by month?
• Lacks separate pages detailing who you are and what you do. This is critical for not only people considering hiring you, but also for bloggers and reporters wanting to verify your authority on the subjec before citing you.
• Lacks subscription by email feature for readers not using RSS.
• Not search engine optimized. Your target audience will have a harder time finding you and the content you are publishing.
• Periodic server issues reducing publishing and viewing speed.

Sure, some lawyers have used Blogger with some success. And Blogger is a great publishing tool. My kids use it for a sports blog.

But for a professional law firm blog, Blogger is not advisable. Blogs are published to further enhance the reputation of a lawyer, not put it at risk.